vie reddened and hung his head, and then looking up, said with a touch
of anger in his voice:

"You are thinking worse of me than I deserve, Mr Maxwell."

"Well, I shall be glad to be set right, Davie."

"You don't suppose my grandfather would grudge a few pounds of sugar in
such a year as this? Why, there has been no such season since I can
remember, at least we have never made so much."

"No, I did not suppose that. It would not be like him."

"And there was no time lost; I was helped rather than hindered. And
anybody would do the same in any sugar-place in the country, only--"
Davie hesitated.

"It was not the sugar I thought of, it was the look that came over your
face when you thought your grandfather was coming, that accused you.
You accused yourself, Davie."

After a moment's silence, Davie said:

"My grandfather is not just like other folks in all things, and there
were two or three here that he does not like--and he might have spoken
hastily--being taken by surprise, and--I didn't like the thought of it."

The hesitation was longer this time.

"The chances are, he would--have given me--a blowing up, and that is not
so pleasant before folks."

"Well," said the minister again.

"Well, he might have been uneasy at the sight of Hooker and Piatt, and
he might have thought I was not to be trusted. And then it would have
vexed grannie and them all. My grandfather is queer about some things--
I mean he is an old man, and has had trouble in his life, with more
ahead, if some folks get their way and so I would have been sorry to see
him just then."

"And, Davie, should all this make you less careful to do his will, or
more, both as to the spirit and the letter?"

"But, Mr Maxwell, it was not that I thought I was doing wrong, only I
hoped grandfather might not come; and even grannie has whiles to--to--
No, I won't say it. Grannie is as true as steel. And I was wrong to do
anything to encourage Hooker and Piatt to stay, and I am sorry."

"Davie," said the minister kindly and solemnly, "be always loyal in word
and deed, as I know you are in heart, to your grandparents. You are
everything to them. I know of no nobler work than you have been doing
all winter. I beg your pardon if I have been hard on you; but it hurt
me dreadfully to see that doubtful look on your face. I did not mean to
be hard."

Davie told all this to Katie a few nights afterward, as they were going
home through the fields tog